Letter - An Agatha Christie mystery

The #28 Downtown bus rolled to a stop. I was seated in the transit shelter at the Bay Centre, waiting for my bus home. As a small crowd left the coach, one gentleman had a paperback book escape his jacket and fall to the sidewalk, unnoticed except by me. The fellow, about sixty, fit and fast, was 10 metres away towards Fort Street before I could stir my legs and get to the book. He was, by then, well out of hailing distance.

The volume was a biography of crime-writer Agatha Christie. A bookmark was tucked at Chapter Twelve. Leaving the marker in place, I put the paperback in my bag. I had just finished my last reading book. Its replacement had just fallen into my hands!

On reading the book, I found it to be a fascinating tale, written by Gwen Robyns, a successful English biographer. She tells every aspect of Dame Agatha's closely guarded life in a fascinating manner which kept me turning the pages.

As I read I felt very sorry for the man who had lost this book at the bus stop. The tale is so engaging. How he must have muttered when he found it missing.

I've now read and enjoyed the biography. The bookmark rests at Chapter Twelve. If someone reading this article is the one who lost the book, please get in touch with me at the Beacon. I'll get it back to you, marker in place!

Ted Ross